thoughts on exploitation
[updated below] I read a thought-provoking article this morning about child pornography laws and photography involving children. It’s a long one, but entirely worth reading.
I do think there is another, larger and probably more difficult question around artists using their children in their art, whether paintings, literature, or photography. Is it exploitation? I don’t know. Maybe. Sometimes. But I also think that if you want to express something about motherhood, parenthood, or childhood in our culture, at some point or other, your kid will come into the picture, literally or figuratively.
Photography seems particularly prone to exploitation. Last weekend, I watched Richard Avedon: Darkness and Light, and he says a few times that he is in control. The photographer is always in control. The people he photographed sometimes felt his portraits were cruel and unforgivable, and he himself wondered – retrospectively – if perhaps photographing his dying father was an act of hostility.
Heather Morton Art Buyer linked to Barbara Crane the other day, who apparently paid her children 35 cents an hour to sit for her, with the agreement that they would not be identifiable in the photographs of human forms. I find this fascinating. The other day, I also read this blog post on a similar topic.
I don’t know what to think of Tierney Gearon’s work. I haven’t seen enough of it, and I haven’t yet watched The Mother Project (which, incidentally, TVO is showing on Thursday, May 7, at 10 pm as part of the Contact Festival). But my initial response to what I have seen is troubled.
I don’t think it’s right to assume or take it for granted that my child belongs all to me, as raw material for my artistic expression. But I also don’t think it’s wrong to feature your children in your art either. As I said in my comment at Elizabeth Fleming’s, I’m starting to think that as long as you’re aware of the potential for exploitation, as long as you’re a little bit troubled by that potential, it’s probably ok?
This seems like an appropriate time to give you a sneak peak at the work I’m putting together from the first two years of my son’s life (which I first mentioned here a while ago). I’m alternating between two working titles, “Two-powered” and “Motherhood and Apple Pie.” If you have a smart way to put those ideas together, please share.
Edited to add: Suzanne Revy blogged on the very same topic, only far more eloquently than I did. Which is interesting, because when I wrote my post yesterday, I had meant to include a link to the recent interview on nymphoto with Revy, but I forgot before I hit publish.
May 1st, 2009 at 9:20 am
I think if you are conscious of it, wary of the possible pitfalls, you are more likely to prevent those missteps or realize when you’ve made them and rectify it.
May 1st, 2009 at 10:05 am
Fascinating and I’ve no time right now to read all your links. I know what my gut reaction is when I am reading parenting blogs. Pictures of kids are great. Pictures of kids that are used only for the purpose of metaphor for the blogger’s ideas feel a bit exploitative to me. I’m not sure I would have those same feelings if I were looking at an art exhibit, but I don’t really know for certain.
May 1st, 2009 at 12:49 pm
Huh. When I first read the title of your post, I was miles away from the idea of linking the topic back to blogging. Like Mad, I’m going to come back and read all the links later, but my first thought is the same answer o which I’d give on writing about my kids: when done with a filter of love and affection, it’s hard to see it as exploitation. When I write stories about my kids (and for that matter, publish pictures of them) it’s because I love them so and want to share them with the world, and because I think they’re
inherently beautiful, like a flower or a sunset. It’s because I want to share the joy of them. I simply can’t reconcile that with exploitation.
That’s just me, of course. I’m a lot less careful than some people, but I’m always aware of the very public nature of putting things on the Internet. I’ve taken down all my naked-baby pictures, for example.
Interesting thoughts…
May 1st, 2009 at 1:17 pm
I know that I started feeling really uncomfortable putting pictures of my kids on my blog. I felt fine about the regular bloggers I “knew” seeing them; but I didn’t like the thought of random strangers looking at them.
Fun fact: when I first started my blog it was called Motherhood and Apple Pie.
My idea for combining the two titles? Two Slices of Motherhood and Apple Pie. Or, alternatively, Motherhood and Apple Pie: Two Slices.
May 3rd, 2009 at 9:26 pm
Kate, i’ve missed you.
PS. you know i’m careful, i’ve always been a bit paranoid though, haven’t i?
May 21st, 2009 at 9:01 am
[...] own expression, especially if you’re using them as a metaphor or archetype (as I touched on here). I’ve also always bristled at language around one’s children being one’s great [...]